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The Lycoming Housing Authority approved the 2024 capital fund plan at the monthly meeting.
Goals outlined in the plan include disposing of a property at 605 West Fourth St, described by MeriLyn Severson, the authority's executive director, as "incidental to the housing authority,".
"That's sort of an ongoing goal we have," Severson said.
Another goal is to convert old office space at the Williams Hepburn Apartments into one or two Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) units, depending on the space available.
"We intend to use 20 percent of our operating funds toward capital fund activities for the years 2024 through 28," Severson said.
"Since we had to direct a large amount of our resources towards the Williamsport Hepburn plumbing project, this will give us a little extra cash to address the needs at our other buildings," she said.
"We also have a plan to apply for mainstream vouchers should that funding become available. We say this every year and we keep our eye out for the funding availability, but it has not happened in the last few years," Severson said.
Mainstream vouchers from the Department of Housing and Urban Development assist non-elderly persons with disabilities.
For 2024, capital fund plan highlights listed in the plan for the following Housing Authority sites were: replace unit bathrooms, replace back porch unit handrails at Penn Vale; air conditioning condensate pans resurfaced and replace Trane heating and cooling units at William Hepburn in addition to the ADA units; renovate one unit to meet ADA standards, elevator upgrade at Mary Slaughter; replace heat valves, replace entrance intercom system at Robert Montgomery; replace kitchens and plaster ceilings at P.D. Mitchell; repair front canopy and repair ceiling panels, install walk-in showers at Peter Herdic; replace unit bathroom, replace back porch unit handrails at Michael Ross; and replace kitchens and unit flooring at the Round houses.
The authority announced that they will be opening the Housing Choice Voucher waiting list Nov. 1 and closing it Nov. 17 or when they receive 100 applications, whichever comes first.
"We have been ramping up our efforts to lease vouchers. We have leased 53 new families up on the program this year opposed to 57 for all of last year," Severson said.
"We are now down to 379 applicants and only 148 of those are extremely low and we have to have 75 percent from that category," she said.
In the past two Section 8 waiting list openings, a less than average number of applications were received, which Severson attributed to the amount of rental assistance during the pandemic.
Additionally many agencies had been closed to the public so that potential applicants may not have known that the list was opening.
"What we do know is families are in need of our rental assistance program," Severson reported.
An amendment to the Housing Choice Voucher Administrative plan to add the Newberry Estates project based vouchers in the plan was also approved by the authority.
Other actions taken by the authority were approving: a contract with SBS Architects, LLC; and the purchase of a Kubota UTV from C.H. Waltz for $24,268.